The device comprises a pan made of steel with a base, lateral walls and a heating surface for cooking food, which heating surface is disposed largely horizontal, optionally with a slight incline inwards, and which is connected to the lateral walls of the pan.
Devices and equipment for grilling and cooking food are used both to meet individual needs as well as in the industrial sector, outdoors as well as in the kitchen area.
Grill units of differing design and modes of operation for example are known, wherein the required thermal energy for cooking food is generated by different media.
Widespread use is made of grill units with a container, which in the lower region comprises means for burning gases or solids and a grill grate located above spaced apart from the latter, wherein the thermal energy generated during the burning is intended to be conveyed to the grill grate to the greatest possible extent.
Widespread use is made of charcoal and combustible gases as combustible materials. EP 0653917 B1 discloses a gas grill for use outdoors, wherein gas burners are disposed in a ring in the base region of a spherical container. A further container for catching fat and so forth dripping down is disposed beneath the gas burners. Such drops of fat are conveyed by a conical wall from the grill grate into the container for the catching thereof, so that they cannot get onto the burner ring.
Charcoal grills are in principle constructed in a similar manner, wherein a fire grate through which air can flow is provided instead of the gas burner, on which fire grate the charcoal glows. The dripping of fat or other liquids into the glowing charcoal can be avoided by collecting trays or suchlike, wherein the food to be cooked lies on the grill grate.
In another embodiment, stones, for example lava stones, can also be heated with gas burners, said stones then serving as heat storage elements for the food to be cooked.
In order to avoid the drawbacks of the aforementioned grill units, a device for cooking food made of steel or cast iron is proposed in EP 2143362 B1 and EP 2581003 A1, said device being intended to enable direct cooking at an optimum cooking temperature over a lengthy period and using combustible materials on a wood base. For this purpose, the device comprises a heating pan in the form of a cut spherical or ellipsoidal shell with a heating surface. The heating surface is designed such that food can be cooked directly thereon and is a circular ring surface running essentially perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the heating pan. The outer edge of the heating surface is fixedly connected to the cut edge of the heating pan. An intermediate base is provided in the heating pan and an opening for removing ash is provided in the lowest region of the heating pan, wherein such an opening should also be provided lying coaxially in the intermediate base.
The heating pan is mounted in a mobile manner on a ring which lies on the supporting surface. The opening for removing ash in the heating pan ends at the supporting surface.